Cable grip

ABSTRACT

A clamp or grip for heavy duty work with twisted wire cables and the like, such as in marine and industrial uses and especially where reasonably easy application of the cable grip to the cable is important and undue bending moments on the heavy cables are to be avoided. The feature of a removable jaw is coupled with dual link bar structure for the jaws without sacrificing strength and with a considerable reduction in overall weight of the clamp as compared to presently available equipment, this being accomplished in part by elimination of a frame as such and providing the principal jaw with a slotted stabilizing arm having a sliding connection with a unique hanger bar, which latter is designed to be connected to the lift hook of a crane or the like.

1 1 Dec.2, 1975 l l CABLE GRIP [76] Inventor: Morris Lamar Whaley, 2605 Faivre,

Chula Vista, Calif. 92011 221 Filed: Aug. 16, 1974 211 Appl. No.: 498,027

[52] US. Cl. 294/104; 24/134 N; 294/92 [51] Int. Cl. 1366C H44 {58] Field of Search 294/86 R, 86 CG, 90, 91, 294/92, 103, 104, 106; 24/134 R, 134 CP,

134 EA, 134 KB, 134 M, 134 N, 249 DP,

249 FP, 249 LL, 249 PC, 134 KC, 134 KD,

Gaddis 294/92 Sholler 294/104 X Primary E.\'aminer lames B. Marbert Assistant Examiner-Johnny D. Cherry Attorney, Agenl, or Firm-Ralph S. Branscomb [57} ABSTRACT A clamp or grip for heavy duty work with twisted wire cables and the like, such as in marine and industrial uses and especially where reasonably easy application of the cable grip to the cable is important and undue bending moments on the heavy cables are to be avoided. The feature of a removable jaw is coupled with dual link bar structure for the jaws without sacrificing strength and with a considerable reduction in overall weight of the clamp as compared to presently available equipment, this being accomplished in part by elimination of a frame as such and providing the principal jaw with a slotted stabilizing arm having a sliding connection with a unique hanger bar. which latter is designed to be connected to the lift hook of a crane or the like.

3 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures CABLE GRIP BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The prior art includes several heavy duty cable clamps or grips and some of these operate upon the same general principle of clamping the cable between opposing jaws by reason of their movement toward each other when an inextensible link means between the jaws is canted at an angle to the cable, either by spring means or by lifting or pulling tension applied to one jaw. It is recognized as old that this canting of the link means is effectively accomplished by providing one jaw with a lever arm which can be directly or indirectly connected with the pulling or lifting tension producing unit such as a crane.

Certain U.S. Pats. such as No 977,236 and No. 2,140,837 disclose the above mentioned structure with both spring and frame features incorporated, while US. Pat. No. 1,320,600 is representative of clamps wherein the outside source of tension is applied directly to one of the jaws. In this last mentioned patent there are two link bars but one must be released and pivoted out of the way when the cable is inserted or removed which limits its field of use. In clamps designed for insertion of the cable between the jaws from the side of the clamp there may be hazard arising from improper application and/or side slippage of the clamp.

There is a need therefore for a heavy duty type cable grip of reasonable weight coupled with great strength and ease and safety in use.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION As claimed, the cable grip meets the immediately above mentioned need, and includes dual confronting link bars carrying the jaws, one of which is removable to permit loading of the cable into a space between the link bars and of course between the jaws, the principal or non-removable jaw has an integral stabilizing arm which has a sliding connection with a hanger bar pivoted to the outer ends of lever arms that are integral with the link bars, and the jaws are closed upon the cable by tension on the hanger bar transmitted to the lever arms causing the link bars to cant and thus to pull the jaws together. Release of the grip is accomplished by manipulation of a bar-like cam element to force the jaws apart by moving the link bars into a position normal to the face of the principal jaw and the cam element can also be used to lock one of the link bars in this open or released position, thus permitting removal of the secondary jaw for the insertion or removal of the cable, the removal being a one-handed operation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevation view of the cable grip in use on a cable;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation view of the cable grip as taken from the right hand side of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken on line 33 of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a view similar to a portion of FIG. 3 illustrating the withdrawal of the removable jaw; and

FIG. 5 is a side elevation view of the cable-grip in locked position to release the cable and/or to permit withdrawal of the removable jaw, insertion or removal of the cable and replacement of the removable jaw.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawing, it should first be noted that the environment wherewith the item is normally used will include twisted wire cables such as are used in marine, industrial and construction work. Such a twisted wire cable is indicated at 10 but the term cable is not intended to be limiting. Since the principal uses involve lifting, a hook 12 is indicated fragmentarily in FIGS. 1,2 and 5 and the hook may be conceived as hoisted or hauled by a crane or winch.

The hanger bar 14, so named because lifting is a principal use, has an elongated opening 16 at what will be arbitrarily considered the top end for connection to the hook 12 or the like and at the lower end is pivotally connected as at 18 to and between the distal ends of two lever arms 20 which are integral extensions of the link bars 22. The link bars 22 are so named because they link the principal jaw 24 to the secondary jaw 26.

The principal jaw 24 has a gripping face 28, the nature of which may vary, being either unitary with the body of that jaw or an insert, but this gripping face 28 is normal to the plane of the axes of pivot members 30 and 32 when the jaws are fully opened as indicated in FIG. 5. This relationship corresponds of course with the maximum spacing of the jaws'and the spacing is reduced when the link bars are cantedas indicated in FIG. 1 where the jaws are in cablegripping relationship.

It is desirable that the hoisting or hauling force be transmitted to the cable without creating an unduly large twisting or bending moment on the cable, so the principal jaw 24 is provided with a stabilizing arm 34 having a slot 36 in the distal portion to accept an intermediate portion of the hanger bar 14. This slot 36 may be formed by bifurcating the distal end portion of the stabilizing arm, the root line of said slot being indicated at 38 in FIG. 1. An antifriction means 40 incorporated with the extremity of the stabilizing arm, between the furcations 42 thereof, bears against the curved working face 44 of the hanger bar. The preferred anti-friction means 40 is a bearing block sleeved onto a bolt or pin 46 and pear-shaped to present a considerable wearing face to said curved working face 44.

It will be evident that the cable 10 is disposed between the link bars 22 as well as between the jaws, and since the cable clamp should be applicable to cables from the side thereof it follows that the dual link bar structure must be complemented by a means of access to said space and this is accomplished by making the secondary jaw removable. The removable jaw 26 has opposed trunnion-like projections 48, which may be the ends of a single pin, which are accepted into downwardly opening, opposed slots 50 in the link bars 22. These slots do not extend through the reinforcing flanges 51. A handle 52 on the removable secondary jaw 26 facilitates the handling thereof and insertion and removal of this secondary jaw is easily accomplished as indicated in FIG. 4 when the jaws are held apart by the releasing element 54 as best illustrated in FIG. 5. When the cable grip is in operative position the slots 50 are slightly inclined thus assuring retention of the jaw 26.

The releasing element is essentially a manually operable cam and may be of bar form with a knee 56 or locking cam face engaging the adjacent lower edge of one of the link bars when in locked position. As illustrated the releasing element 54 has a handle portion 58 which is lifted to force said knee into slightly overcenter relation to its pivotal mounting 60 on the principal jaw, thus locking this jaw in relation to the link bars so that a plane including the axes of the pivot members 30 and 32 is at right angles to the gripping face 28 of the principal jaw and so that the jaws are maximally spaced,

It will be evident from a consideration of the foregoing that the advantages of weight reduction, good balance or stability and ease of handling have been achieved, along with increased ruggedness, by the described dual link bar, removable jaw, self-stabilizing and simple lock-open features. Further description appears unnecessary, except that the not-so-obvious advantage of one-handed control of the removable jaw 26 should be noted. With the jaws held open by the releasing element 54 as indicated in FIG. 5 the removable jaw 26 can be manipulated by one hand of the operator while the other hand is used to assure the proper alignment of the cable, so that even heavy cable grips and cables can be handled safely by one man.

Since the removable jaw 26 is free to move downwardly when the link bar 22 is raised to the open position shown in FIG. 5, a tether cable 62 is connected to and between the link bar 22 and the removable jaw 26 to prevent loss of the latter. Another refinement is the friction spring 64 on the pivot bolt 60 to hold the releasing element 54 in an out of the way position while the cable and jaw 26 are being manipulated into the required positions.

I claim:

1. A straight line cable grip, comprising:

a pair of similar spaced confronting link bars;

a primary jaw having pivotal mounting means whereby the same is mounted on and between said link bars, and having a cablegripping face;

a secondary jaw having pivotal mounting means comprising opposed trunnion-like projections thereon and said link bars are provided with slots to accept said projections whereby said secondary jaw is releasibly mounted on and between said link bars and has a cable-gripping face in confronting relation to the first mentioned face,

said link bars having lever arms extending from the side thereof remote from said secondary jaw;

a hanger bar pivotally secured to the distal ends of said lever arms;

said primary jaw having a stablilizing arm on the side thereof remote from said secondary jaw and having a sliding connection with said hanger bar;

a grip-releasing cam element mounted on said pri mary jaw and manually shiftable to force said link bars and said primary jaw to move relatively to each other into a cable-releasing relationship;

said grip-releasing cam element comprises a bar pivoted on said primary jaw and having a knee portion shiftable into camming contact with one of said link bars and locking said link bar relative to said primary jaw in said cable-releasing relationship, whereby when so locked, said secondary jaw is easily removable.

2. A cable grip according to claim 1 wherein said stabilizing arm is bifurcated in the distal portion thereof to define a slot, and is provided with a bearing cam pivotally mounted between the furcations thereof, and said hanger bar is extended through said slot and has a curved working face for sliding contact with said bearing cam, the contacting surfaces of said hanger bar and said bearing cam being complementarily contoured to provide a broad force transferance area.

3. Structure according to claim .1 wherein said secondary jaw is provided with a generally U-shaped han dle to facilitate the easy removal thereof, and including a flexible cable means connecting said jaws to maintain same connected when separated. 

1. A straight line cable grip, comprising: a pair of similar spaced confronting link bars; a primary jaw having pivotal mounting means whereby the same is mounted on and between said link bars, and having a cablegripping face; a secondary jaw having pivotal mounting means comprising opposed trunnion-like projections thereon and said link bars are provided with slots to accept said projections whereby said secondary jaw is releasibly mounted on and between said link bars and has a cable-gripping face in confronting relation to the first mentioned face; said link bars having lever arms extending from the side thereof remote from said secondary jaw; a hanger bar pivotally secured to the distal ends of said lever arms; said primary jaw having a stablilizing arm on the side thereof remote from said secondary jaw and having a sliding connection with said hanger bar; a grip-releasing cam element mounted on said primary jaw and manually shiftable to force said link bars and said primary jaw to move relatively to each other into a cable-releasing relationship; said grip-releasing cam element comprises a bar pivoted on said primary jaw and having a knee portion shiftable into camming contact with one of said link bars and locking said link bar relative to said primary jaw in said cable-releasing relationship, whereby when so locked, said secondary jaw is easily removable.
 2. A cable grip according to claim 1 wherein said stabilizing arm is bifurcated in the distal portion thereof to define a slot, and is provided with a bearing cam pivotally mounted between the furcations thereof, and said hanger bar is extended through said slot and has a curved working face for sliding contact with said bearing cam, the contacting surfaces of said hanger bar and said bearing cam being complementarily contoured to provide a broad force transferance area.
 3. Structure according to claim 1 wherein said secondary jaw is provided with a generally U-shaped handle to facilitate the easy removal thereof, and including a flexible cable means connecting said jaws to maintain same connected when separated. 